Falling Away
by HolbyCityFan13
Summary: Maddie Ziegler is 14. She is on Abby's new senior elite dance team, along with Paige, Brooke, Chloe, Kendall and Nia. Maddie lives for dance, and she's one of Abby's best senior dancers. But when Maddie's mom sees her grades slipping, she takes drastic action, something which will turn Maddie's life upside down forever...
1. 1 Pyramid

*This is a Dance Moms fanfiction, though it can also be read without knowledge of the show*

"Let's start with the bottom of the pyramid." Abby rips the paper off the first picture to reveal the photo of Kayla. She only joined last week, so she didn't have a solo. "Kayla. You're new, you didn't have a solo at the competition. You did well in the group dance, but I didn't have anything else to judge you on."

Kayla nods and Abby reveals the next picture. "Kendall, the same goes for you. You didn't have a solo, I had nothing to judge you on. You did well in the group dance, and you helped the junior team with their costumes."

Kendall nods and Abby moves on to the next picture. "Maddie. You danced well at the competition, in the group dance and your solo, but you're still at the bottom. And everyone's wondering, why is Maddie at the bottom of the pyramid? Because she performed badly at the auditions after the competition. I gave all of you girls the opportunity to try out for a part in this new television show, and everyone got through to the next round except Maddie." She turns to me. "Do you know why they didn't put you through? You danced beautifully. But you didn't read the script beautifully. Don't you do reading comprehension at home? Did your mother ever practise that with you? Well, it didn't look like it. I'll talk to your mother after class."

I think back to the auditions last week.

_"Madison Ziegler." A man called across the room. I walked up to the doors and pushed them open, clutching my script. "Madison, we'd like you to perform a short dance, then act out the scene. You can use the script." I place the script on the desk at one side of the room and take my starting position. The music comes on and I start dancing. Abby took the choreography from my Cry solo, the one that I danced when I was ten, and selected certain moves to fit with a shorter piece of music. I finish the dance and pick up my script._

_"I don't care what you think! This is my life - I'll do what I want. And what I want is to grow up and study psychology!" I took a second to look at that word again - psychology. How did they expect us to know how to say that? I decided to go with 'pi-si-ch-ol-ogy.' "And study psychology and art! Because I want to know how people think and help them, and I want to draw and paint!" I read off the sheet and they dismissed me._

"For this week's competition, Chloe and Paige have solos, and Nia and Kayla have a duet. The group dance is called 'Party In Paris'. It's all about a group of girls who are out having fun in the city - the music's great, the costumes are amazing - you'll love it. Kendall, Brooke, Selena, you will each be part of a solo, duet or trio next weekend, but this competition only allows two solos and one duet per group. Maddie, you will be taking the week off. I need to speak to you and your mother."

I follow Abby out of the room as everyone else warms up. Mom heard her talking and is waiting at the bottom of the stairs. The moms don't come in for pyramid any more - Abby told them to just watch from upstairs because they interfered too much. "Melissa, have you done any tests with Maddie and Mackenzie?" Mom shakes her head. "I've ordered some online and they're going to sit them in a few days." Abby nods. "Okay. I know that the girls started home-schooling to spend more time dancing, but I think that if they don't do too well on the tests, it might be a good idea to enrol them in school again." Mom nods and goes back upstairs.

"Maddie, since you're taking this week off, I suggest you spend some more time working on your home-schooling. You're here today, so you can spend the rest of the day helping out the junior elite team." I go to Studio C, where the junior team are practising, and start giving them tips on their dancing.

"Mackenzie, straighten your leg."

"Clara, point your toes."

"Alice, those turns should be neater."  
I sit at the side and help them until they finish at 7. I pick up my dance bag from the changing room and Mom drives us home. When we get home, I practice my turns and the solo I had last week - I have to practice, even though I'm not dancing this week.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Selena is a made up character, so is Alice. Clara is Chloe's little sister - I wasn't sure about the ages, so for this story, Chloe is 16, Maddie is 14, Mackenzie is 11, Clara is 6, Brooke is 17, Paige is 15, Nia is 15 and Kendall is 15. Selena is 17, and Alice is 8.**


	2. 2 Results

**3 weeks later **

"Juniors! Your section of the competition has nearly finished. There's just Clara and Mackenzie's solos to go before it's time for the seniors to go on. Clara, you're on next. If you forget, don't stop dancing. Just improv to the music, or do whatever you can remember, okay?" Abby tells her before she takes Clara to the side of the stage. I leave the dressing room with Chloe and Christi to go and watch. We sit beside the junior dance team's moms. Our moms are still in the dressing room, checking the costumes and hair are right. The music changes and Clara comes onto the stage in a sweet black and yellow dress. She starts dancing and I realise that she's doing Vivi's old solo, but with a new costume. It's her first solo, and she's doing really well until it's nearly the end. For a split second, Clara stops, but Chloe smiles at her and she starts to improv until she skips off stage at the end of the dance. I clap and wait for Mackenzie to come out and do her solo. She comes on in her costume - a sunny yellow dress and a flower clipped in her hair and performs her solo. I want to watch all of it, but our group dance is on right after Mackenzie, so I run back to the dressing room.

"Girls! You're seniors now, I don't expect any mistakes. You should be winning this competition. " Abby tells us as we get ready to go on. Mackenzie skips off and we walk on in a group. This week's dance is called 'Growing Up' and Abby said it has to represent changes. We stand in a line facing the audience, in height order, from me to Brooke. As the music starts, I cartwheel to my right and Paige cartwheels to her left. Kendall, Nia, Kayla and Selena do the same, and Brooke turns and does a backwards walkover so that she's in the middle. We turn quickly, and as the music changes we slow down and skip to our next positions on stage. The next section of the dance is slower and as the music becomes more serious, we return to our start positions. The audience start to clap and we slowly walk off stage.

We get back to the dressing room and Kendall, Selena and Chloe get changed into their trio costumes. Kayla and Brooke get changed into their solo costumes and the rest of us wait for Abby to come back.

**30 minutes later**

"The trio was amazing. Brooke, Kayla, your solos were great, but both of you need to practise the areas of dance that you're not so good at. The group dance was pretty good, but you need to be best. Did you see some of the teams out there? You've got tough competition today." Abby tells us. I grab my pink ALDC hoodie as we go back to the stage for them to announce the awards.

"We'll start with the junior section, solo awards. 3rd place goes to the solo "Bumble Bee", by Clara from ALDC!" Clara goes up and receives her certificate. "2nd place goes to 'Swim' by Lucy from CADC! And in first place, with her solo 'Sunshine', is Mackenzie Ziegler from ALDC!" We cheer for Mackenzie before they move on to the duets, where Alice and Ellie win 2nd, and the group awards, where the juniors come 1st.

"And now we will move on to the senior section solo awards. In 3rd place, with her solo 'Be There', is Brooke from ALDC! In 2nd place, with her solo 'In The Summer', is Amelia from CADC! And finally, in 1st place, with her solo 'Powerful Things, is Kayla from ALDC!" Everyone cheers, but I wish Brooke had come first. Kayla's only been here for a couple of weeks.

"In the senior trio awards, in 3rd place, with their dance 'Flying High', are Kendall, Selena and Chloe from ALDC!" They go up to collect their awards as the other ones were announced. Abby looks relieved that the trio from Candy Apples hadn't placed above us.

"In the senior group awards, in 3rd place is...'Last Dance', performed by CADC! In 2nd place, performing 'Growing Up', are ALDC!" Brooke, being the oldest member of the group, goes up to collect the award. Abby doesn't look pleased when they announced the winners - the girls from the Euphoria Dance Company. They're a small company who didn't do many competitions, but now that they'd won one...I suddenly realise why Abby is so angry. If a small, inexperienced company like that could beat us, anyone could! Candy Apples dancers had placed above Brooke and Clara in the solos already...

**At the hotel**  
"I was pleased with all of you today. I don't care what you placed - most of you got into the top 3, and those of you who didn't deserved to." Abby announces just before we split up to go into our rooms at the hotel. We usually get the bus home, but the competition didn't end until 9 so Abby decided we should check in to a hotel. Mom, Mackenzie and I go to our room - number 308 - and change into our pyjamas. Mom gets her iPad out to check her emails and tells me and Mackenzie to come over to the bed. "You know those tests you did a few weeks ago? They've marked them and they emailed me the results. Maddie, go and brush your teeth and get ready for bed while I tell Mackenzie hers. She can decide whether she wants to tell you or not."  
I take my bag into the bathroom and brush my teeth. I think I did okay in the tests. Mom said that 75% or more was good, 60-75% was okay, and less than 50% in any of the tests meant I had to go back to school. There were some really hard questions in some of the tests, but most of the questions seemed easy.  
I go back into the room and Mackenzie's smiling. " I got 90 in Maths, 85 in English, and 78 in Science, and-" She starts telling me, but Mom interrupts. "Mackenzie, go and brush your teeth." She grabs her bag and goes into the bathroom.

"Maddie, come and see your results." She sounds disappointed. I don't think the results are good. I sit beside her on the bed and she hands me her iPad.  
**_Madison's Results_**  
_English: 47%_  
_Math: 52%_  
_Science: 56%_  
_Geography:68%_  
_History: 42%_

"You know what this means, Maddie." Mom says. I sigh. I have to go back to school when it starts again in September.  
"School." She takes her iPad back.  
"Maddie, those results are appalling. You're 14 now. I trusted you to take care of your own school work, I gave you the books and told you what you needed to learn, and you didn't do it. "  
"I'm sorry, Mom."  
She sighs. "I just want to know why."  
"Abby said I should start putting in more hours at the studio, but I couldn't do that and all the work. And it's so boring, just reading stuff out of books all the time. I have to practise dance at home too, like when we don't have classes and-"  
"I know that dance is your life, but your education has always come first. How are you going to become a professional dancer or actress if you can't read the lines properly?"  
I stay silent. Mackenzie comes in and tells Mom she's going to have a shower before she goes to bed and then goes back into the bathroom. I wait until I can hear the running water before I speak.  
"Could I go to Chloe's school? Brooke goes too, and Paige will in-"  
"I'll talk to their moms in the morning and we'll sort something out tomorrow night."  
I get into bed and text the other girls before I go to sleep.

_To: Paige, Nia, Kendall, Brooke, Chloe_  
_Mom said I have 2 stop homeschool :( _

**A/N: Thanks for reading! I know exactly where this story is going so feel free to ask if a certain thing will happen or not. I will answer one question per chapter that I upload, so ask away!**


End file.
